A THOUSAND TIMES GOOD NIGHT

Norway/Ireland/Sweden, 2013, 117 minutes, Colour.
Juliette Binoche, Nikolai Coster- Waldau, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Lauryn Canny.
Directed by Erik Poppe.

A Thousand Times Good night takes the audience into some contemporary war zones, especially Afghanistan and Kenya. It was filmed on location and offers powerful images of these places, ordinary people, terrorists, suicide bombers. Since the film is about a war photographer, the images are vivid and striking. The director himself, Erik Poppe, was also a war photographer and had made documentaries about dangerous places.

The film won the Ecumenical Award at the Montréal film Festival in 2013. Erik Poppe also won a SIGNIS award for his fine film about guilt and repentance in a Lutheran context, Troubled Waters (2009).

Juliette Binoche always makes a significant impression in her films. This is definitely the case here. From the very beginning, her character, Rebecca, is dressed in Muslim clothing, photographing a women’s ritual which, to our horror, is the preparation of a young woman to be a suicide bomber, her prayer and contemplation, the elderly women and the dignity and ritual with which they strap the bombs to the young woman, putting her veil on her. And all the time, Rebecca is vigorously photographing everything. A driver takes them by car into the central streets of Kabul, Rebecca wanting to get out of the car, the explosion following, killing people, wounding Rebecca. This is quite an impact for an opening to the film.

For a while after this, the drama moves very quietly as Rebecca is in hospital in Dubai, her husband, Marcus (Nikolai Coster- Waldau) coming to her bedside and then taking her back to their ordinary life in Ireland. He is a scientist. They have two daughters. With Rebecca, and with Marcus and the daughters, we experience the tension where a mother goes out on dangerous missions, the rest of the family in fear that she will be killed, and, without their admitting it, resenting her absence from home. Gradually, the family quieten down and Rebecca is almost at the stage where she thinks she should not go back on any dangerous commission. However, she is upset when, because of Pentagon influence, New York publishers tell her that they cannot use any of her pictures.

At this stage, the film is an arresting study of a family and their trying to deal with serious challenges. It might be noted that, with a husband as the photographer, this would be a more acceptable situation even if it was not liked. It is a situation where a woman is working in what is considered a man’s world.

The older daughter is involved in a school project about Africa and has the opportunity to go to visit a United Nations settlement in Kenya, near the border with Sudan, with hundreds of refugees, many of them orphans. Rebecca goes with her daughter, even giving her a camera. All is well as they tour the settlement but, suddenly, a group of masked terrorists attacks the compound, the daughter taken to safety but Rebecca automatically going back into photographic action, in really dangerous situations. This means that the tension within the family continues.

At one stage, Rebecca tries to explain to her daughter what it is that drives her to these situations. She has a good eye so is successful as a photographer. But, she says she has always had an inner anger, situations requiring some kind of justice and action and that photography provides proper and creative outlet for her anger.

The film has an open-ended finale, Rebecca returning to Afghanistan, following up the original story, taking photos of yet another young girl as a suicide bomber. But, after the experience of tensions with her daughters, she looks at this same situation much more emotionally. She stands… And the film ends. We do not know what she will decide, what she will do with the rest of her life. This open ending challenges the audience, whether they agree with her or not, whether they have the same experiences of the dangerous situations she observes, whether there is a need for this kind of professional war photographer.

At this is an intelligent as well as an emotional film, highlighting for audiences who have more comfortable lives, how dangerous many areas in the world are and help people, severely oppressed, threatened with death and torture, suffer more than we might ordinarily comprehend.

1. A topical film? War zones in the 21st century? War correspondence? Photographers? In action, in danger, the repercussions?

2. Afghanistan, filming in Kabul? In Kenya, the border with Sudan? Irish settings, the home, the coast? The musical score and moods?

3. The title, Rebecca and her family? The response of Marcus, the children?

4. The reality of terror, correspondents on the spot, Afghanistan, the city and kabul, the preparation of the suicide bomber, the world of the women, prayer, ritual? Islamic beliefs? The driver, the group going to the city, Rebecca photographing everything? The location, her getting out of the car, the igniting of the bomb, the deaths? The reprisal of the preparation of the terrorist at the end of the film?

5. Rebecca, in Muslim dress, her presence in Afghanistan, her skill as a photographer, watching the preparations, her reaction, getting out of the car, the explosion, it, the camera in the dust? hospital in Dubai? Sending the photos to the US? The phone call and the Pentagon forbidding their publication?

6. Rebecca, her love for Marcus, her role as wife, as mother, Lisa and Steph, yet the drive to be away and in dangerous situations, her good eye and photography? Recovering from injuries, Marcus coming to Dubai for her? The gifts for the girls? The tension with Marcus, with her daughters, the angers? Wanting their mother at home? Marcus and his work, science, the children by the sea and the crab race? His attitude to Rebecca, Rebecca and her collecting Steph from school, going to see the rehearsal for the African project?

7. Rebecca and Marcus and their friends, meals, discussions, support? Rebecca getting better, walking with Marcus on the beach, their playful going into the water?

8. Going to Kenya, Rebecca’s gift of the camera to Steph? The UN settlement, on the border, the enormous number of migrants, the children, orphans? Photographing the people? Stig and the United Nations authorities? The news of the danger, Stephanie in the car, Rebecca refusing, photographing, the shootings, the dangers, in the tent, photographing the corpses, getting out? Steph and her reaction, the plan not to tell Marcus? Steph and her hostility? Rebecca and her apologies?

9. Rebecca, explaining her inner compulsion, what she was good at, her angers since she was a child, continued angers, photography as an outlet? Marcus ousting her? Getting into the car with her daughters, Marcus dragging the children out? Rebecca alone?

10. The contact with New York, the change of heart, wanting her to return? At the airport, staying to watch Steph’s performance, her speech, her praise of her mother and the orphans needing Rebecca more than her daughters did?

11. The return to Kabul, the same situation, her different reactions, the emotional reactions, her standing, the audience wondering?

12. The end, Rebecca’s decision – and the audience challenged as to what she would do and why she would do it?